The disclosure relates generally to displays, and more particularly, to subpixel arrangements of displays and a method for rendering the same.
Displays are commonly characterized by display resolution. With is the absolute number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed (e.g., 1920×1080) or by display density (a.k.a. pixels per inch—PPI) concerning the relative numbers of pixels per inch. Many displays are for various reasons, not capable of displaying different color channels at the same site. Therefore, the pixel grid is divided into single-color parts that contribute to the displayed color when viewed from a distance. In some displays, such as liquid crystal display (LCD), organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, electrophoretic ink (E-ink) display, electroluminescent display (ELD) or light-emitting diode (LED) lamp display, these single-color parts are separately addressable elements, which are known as subpixels.
Various subpixel arrangements (layouts, schemes) have been proposed to operate with a proprietary set of subpixel rendering algorithms in order to improve the display quality by increasing the display density of a display and by anti-aliasing text with greater details. For example, LCDs typically divide each pixel into three strip subpixels (e.g., red, green, and blue subpixels) or four quadrate subpixels (e.g., red, green, blue, and white subpixels) so that each pixel can present brightness and a full color. Compared with LCDs, it is even more difficult to increase the display density of OLED displays by reducing the size of individual subpixel because the organic light-emitting layers of OLEDs are fabricated by evaporation techniques using fine metal masks (FMMs). Due to the process accuracy for patterning organic materials using FMMs, the minimum size of each organic light-emitting layer is limited. To overcome such limitation, various subpixel arrangements with subpixel rendering algorithms have been applied to increase the display density of OLED displays.
In an OLED display having a “diamond” pixel array 2600 shown in FIG. 26, the green subpixels G are repeated M a single line, while red subpixels R and blue subpixels B are larger and alternate between the lines of green subpixels. The subpixel array 2600 is divided into various pixels, each of which consists of one red subpixel and two half-green subpixels (pixel 2602) or consists of one blue subpixel and two half-green subpixels (pixel 2604). Apparently, in this example, only the number of green subpixels is the same as the number of pixels on the display, while the number of either the red or blue subpixels is only half of the number of pixels in display. That is, the actual color resolution of red or blue subpixels is only half of the display resolution.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved subpixel arrangements of displays and a method for rendering the same to overcome the above-mentioned problems.